The advent of farming dairy products, had significant effects on the shape of human skulls, new research has found (CCSS Level: Grade 9, Words: 304)

Aug 29, 2017 Science & Technology

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The move from chasing down our food to growing our own nosh left a permanent mark on our biology. The effect of agriculture on skull shape was greatest in populations consuming the softest food - cheese, according to the study published in the journal Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.

"At least in early farmers, milk did not make for bigger, stronger skull bones," said David Katz, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Calgary.

Katz, with Professor Tim Weaver and statistician Mark Wrote from University of California-Davis, the team studied skulls from 25 different groups around the world, including 559 crania (skull bones) and 534 lower jaws to model the influence of diet on the shape, form, and size of the human skull during the transition to agriculture.

Backing up previousresearch, they found modest changes in skull shape for groups that ate cereals, dairy, or both. Dairy specifically was the largest driver, with populations eating a lot of cheese showing the most drastic changes in skull form. It seems that once we invented soft foods like cheese, our jaws didn't need to be quite as big and powerful.

"The main differences between forager and farmer skulls are where we would expect to find differences, if chewing demands decreased in the farming group," said Katz.

That said, the cheesy changes were fairly modest, in the overall scheme of things. While they had a noticeable impact, other factors like location and sex were bigger drivers of the evolution of our skulls. However, differences due to diet tended to be small compared to other factors, such as the differed between males and females or between individuals with the same diet from differentpopulations, Katz said.